2007-10-04

Ilkka Kanerva (cons), the Finnish foreign minister, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday that Finland had offered to host talks between Estonia, Finland and Russia aimed at preventing violations of Estonian and Finnish airspace by Russian military aircraft.

Mr Kanerva added the initiative to launch the talks had come from Russia.

The talks are initially scheduled to begin in November.

According to the Defense News, an Estonian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that the country has agreed "in principle to hold talks at the level of specialists". The article also notes that after Finland and Russia held bilateral talks, the violations stopped for a couple of years, right up to last month's incident.